Helping Hand
by ITeraPrince
Summary: Every needs a helping hand every now and again. One Shot


Helping Hand

Her hand lifted the page slowly turning to a different one, her eyes fell on the words underlined by her own quill. It took her a few minutes to realize that it had been the sixth time she had gone over this page in the past hour. She was exhausted and her body knew it, her eyes closing slowly and her head nearly falling to the table chin first. Her mind and small strength she had left was what kept her up and awake, 'I have to help Harry.' she chanted to herself trying to give herself a sort of adrenaline rush to stay awake and finish her research about the black lake and underwater diving techniques.

Hermione dropped one of her hands that were on her chin and had her finger trace the letters to keep her focus on the page as she read on. Each word was like a clock ticking making her lose her strength as she fell to her body's control. Her eyes slowly closed and everything seemed blurry, she could no longer feel the presence of her other hand as her chin touched the old parchment. A yawned escaped her as she involuntarily made the book her pillow.

Her thoughts drifted towards Harry, she thought of how he could possibly survive the TriWizard Tournament without her help. She had read that many wizards fell on the grounds of each task, the statistical chance of each champion surviving and even claiming the cup as their own was less than 50% within the last century. Oh how she feared for him, the thought of him getting hurt always made her heart jump and her body tense up. Normally it would be because of his Quidditch games but ever since this whole Tournament thing hung over her head she feared for him seven times more.

But deep within herself she knew that it wasn't about her being his friend worrying about him, there was something else. Ever since third year and the drama that came to both their lives about the inevitable courting that would quickly be a part of their lives. Teenagers were hormone juiced individuals who get flooded with all these emotions that don't make sense at the time or will never make sense. For Hermione her anger and frustrated emotions were mostly directed towards Ron whenever they would argue back and forth but that left all her positive and happy feelings to go towards Harry.

At first she thought nothing of it other than it being on her mind behind her constant studying and homework that she allowed herself. It wasn't until Lavender and Parvati started to fan girl about Harry and daydreamed out loud of how he would save them like a knight and shining armor and countless mentions of how cute he was. Hermione's face was in a scowl whenever she was forced to hear her dorm mates talk about her best friend like that. A burning fire brought heat to her chest feeling an emotion that she would never have thought would occur with Harry as the topic jealousy.

Things only got worse when she rode Buckbeak with Harry in order to save Sirius from one of the towers. Her heart fluttered uncontrollably knowing what riding a hippogriff meant having done a twelve page report on them for Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. She had always feared flying but with her arms around Harry made her feel safe but still terrified as her hair flapped about in the air diving towards the tower.

Once they rescued Sirius they landed at the fountain by the courtyard, all three of them hopped off Buckbeak. Looking at them she could tell they wanted to speak privately leaving her to tend to Buckbeak "Come on Buckbeak." she said leading the hippogriff to the other side of the courtyard so that they wouldn't be disturbed. Buckbeak was moving his head about wanting to fly some more, but Hermione did her best to calm him down using her hand to pet him close to the beak. Every so often she would glance back at Harry wondering what they could possibly be talking about, when she saw him smile she couldn't help but do the same.

Later when Harry came up to her and Sirius mounted Buckbeak, he randomly took her hand into his. Hermione felt her cheeks burn and bright red color as Sirius said his goodbyes to them before flying off to the moon. The clock tower rang loudly scaring them both, they both looked at one another and quickly thought of Ron. They ran up the stairs to the hospital wing still hand in hand, Harry didn't notice that he was still doing that but Hermione swore she lost feeling in that hand.

Whatever happened to her that year she wanted to tell him or at least talk about it with him before he left for the Dursleys. But alas Ron had him engaged in a conversation about the Chudley Cannons and Quidditch that was all she could gather without wanting to blow his head off so she could finally speak to Harry. She couldn't get a single word in until Harry said his goodbyes to them both, for the rest of that summer she dreamt of him and the day they would meet again.

When the whole tournament fiasco happened, she pushed back all the thoughts of Harry as more than a friend to focus on making sure he came out of this tournament alive. Her mind was so focused on that, that it was easy to drown out her feelings with homework as well until she was reminded by a simple touch or mention of her name.

A hand shook her back taking her out of her thoughts, her eyes still closed failing her to open. "Come on Hermione, it's time for bed." the sound of his voice made her smile making realize the unconscious drool that flowed down the side of her face and onto the page. "But Harry…" she fought against him wanting to not move from her spot and possibly continue researching once she regathers her strength "No, you've been here all night… trying to help me survive this ridiculous tournament."

He stood defiant against her opposition, but she was too tired to push him away physically "Five more minutes…" she murmured against the page. She couldn't see Harry's smile but it was there, he shook his head at the sight of her "That would be five minutes too long, besides I bet Madame Pince would appreciate it if you gave her the night off. From my experience with Madame Pomfrey that's usually the case."

Taking his own initiative he lifted her off the chair and swung her bag onto her shoulder "Up you go Mione…" her heart leaped at the sudden action. Her mind told her to fight him off so she could walk on her own but she was too exhausted to move her body. Harry cradled her in his arms as he walked the both of them back to the tower, when he reached the grand staircase he slowly walked up them making sure not disturb her. On the contrary she didn't want to move at all, she loved being so close to him and hearing his heart beating made her calm.

Once they reached her dorm he laid her down on her bed in which she quickly stretched out and got comfortable sighing to herself. Harry smiled and leaned down kissing her temple before taking his leave. Her body shook a bit at the touch of his lips but just like that it was gone and when she heard the door close her face showed a frown and a quick breeze caused her to pull up her covers. Nevertheless she found her way to a peaceful sleep thinking of her knight and shining armor with green eyes and round spectacles.


End file.
